Jordan Reddlewick (Cataclysmic Gerosha)
The following is about an anti-hero from ''Sodality. For all other uses, see Sapphire King (disambiguation).'' }} Jordan Reddlewick / Sapphire King is an antihero / antivillain featuring in Sodality. He is a childhood friend of Emeraldon, though the two of them parted ways due to some questions on the ethics of when theft is or is not justified. He is a founding member of the Sapphire Gang and the Sodality of Florence, as well as one of the only two Emwaults to have survived past 2003. He is the eventual husband to Celia "Taterbug" Winehart-Reddlewick, and eventual father of Wally Reddlewick. Powers, weaknesses, and accessories Powers * Ambient energy absorption * Flight * Enhanced speed * Enhanced strength * Enhanced durability Equipment * Utility belt ** Acetylene torch ** Zeran wardrobes and chargers ** Zeran teleporters and chargers ** Lock picks ** Laser pointer ** Box cutter * Armor * Hood * Night goggles * Septagon chest energy concussion beam Character bio . Original photo here.]] Personality Jordan is portrayed as being a man somewhat bitter about his inability to fit in with his environment, and dejected. Having a blue tint to his skin, in his mind, makes him less than human. He has always been a kleptomaniac, unable to resist the urge to commit petty thefts. He, like Emeraldon, prefers not to kill anyone if he can help it. He also bears a huge amount of respect for his rival; even understanding why his rival's existence is necessary. The two almost view each other as estranged brothers. In time, he and Donte both grow less and less fond of their suits and look for ways to blend in with civilian life more. He does know when the time comes to resume his Sapphire King activities, and will even help the heroes out if necessary to battle a greater evil. Family tree Development Inspirations Early on, Jordan was there simply to be an archenemy of Donte. It was quickly realized that having them be best friends that grew apart due to ideological differences, a-la Professor X and Magneto, was far more interesting. Jordan's alias of "Sapphire King" was to show his ego on display, while invoking a sense of ominousness befitting Marvel's villain Shadow King - or the Lich King from World of Warcraft, or even the Witch King from Lord of the Rings. In the end, he didn't live up to any of these inspirations. His hair was made red to contrast better with his blue skin; but was otherwise a nod to Chad Kroeger's hair and facial hair in his music video to "Hero," off the soundtrack to 2002's Spider-Man film. Corando's lead singer was also a nod to / parody of Chad Kroeger. Having Jordan eventually fall in love with Celia - and corrupt her to being his sidekick - borrowed inspiration heavily from the origin story of Harley Quinn. This story element also went through several revisions, yet care was taken to never let the Sapphire King become a carbon copy of the Joker, nor Taterbug of Harley - in spite Celia having Harleen's same long blonde hair motif. Of Emeralds and Sapphires was first inceived as a way of showing how he became a foil for Emeraldon, in a fashion not so different from how X-Men: First Class explained the origins of Xavier and Magneto's friendship turned rivalry. Later inclusion of Jordan in Vindication as a member of the Sodality of Florence allows his character arc to grow further, this time independently of his relationship to Donte. Early versions In keeping with Ciem having Milp as an evil counterpart, it only seemed befitting to mention that Emeraldon had one. The character has grown much more tragic and sympathetic since his cameo at the end of Ciem. Discussion of these early versions has therefore been split into two articles: Classic and Comprehensive Sapphire King. Visual appearance The original Jordan Reddlewick model had a custom evil mermaid skintone in The Sims 2, and was designed to be nothing more than a dark counterpart to Donte in order to create the appearance that Candi's love interest actually did something apart from being her lover - had a life outside of her. When Donte's Emeraldon suit was altered to fit the darker and grittier setting of Sodality, the Sapphire King was one of many characters from Comprehensive Gerosha character stock that got transferred over. However, his near-nonexistent original backstory wasn't sufficient for this newer, darker alternate timeline. Comprehensive Gerosha was conceived based on the assumption that America would culturally remain stagnant to what it was under the Bush and Clinton eras, not taking into account what the Obama cabinet meant by "fundamental transformation." When it became readily apparent that America's enemies were getting stronger and America weaker under Obama's first term, and that the culture was rapidly shifting in a radically different direction, Comprehensive Gerosha's timeline didn't seem to make much sense anymore. With the 2012 election results, it was clear that 2016 could make or break the nation's future. Cataclysmic Gerosha was developed as a timeline of investigating worst-case scenarios based on assuming that if Hillary won, all her opponents' worst fears and then some would be realized, embellished with comic book elements to make it even more dramatic. Alternate history was built into the story model, so real-world history post-2016 would be irrelevant from the get-go. As such, very few narrative elements for the Sapphire King could be left the same. Jordan, much like Donte, was made a lot shorter than how they were in previous narratives. Their suits were modified to show that they could use their ambient energy absorbance to greater effect if they could redirect that absorbed energy in more versatile ways. Jordan kept his blue skin, though some of the merman details from Sims 2 were lost in translation to later artwork formats. Since he went from a full-blown supervillain to an anti-hero and thief, he was given a hood to invoke a sort of "Robin Hood" forest bandit feel. His suit veered away from generic blue spandex, which was seen as campy, to a schizophrenic mixture of futuristic armored antihero and classic medieval bandit attire. Somehow, this sharp contrast works for the character. Variations on his suit design are dependent on the medium he is presented in. No Earth-G7 Sapphire King artwork currently exists in Sims 2, since that game's suit catalog was better suited to Earth-G5. His Earth-G6 look was never finalized, but would've been based on Donte's from that same development stage. He's had two major designs in Sims 3, with a pending look in Sims 4. His crude early thief suit in the Gordon Throm artworks comes from the fact that it would have been much more painstaking to adapt a final suit look for him from the stock photo used. His texture pattern in Sims 3 artwork serves several purposes. First, it shows how his suit and body interact with his ability to absorb ambient environmental energy and redirect it. Second, his textures help set his suit apart from the ice suits worn by the Ice Chimps in Q-Basic Gorillas, since both suits use the same mesh template. Third, his texture gives him more futuristic appeal in that they function as a hybrid of Matrix code and Tron lines in terms of visual aesthetic - the only difference between his and Donte's being that Donte's is green while Jordan's is blue. Gallery |-|Sapphire King= |-|Civilian= See also * Jordan's rap sheet * ''Sodality'' (series) * Emeraldon * ''Ciem'' (webcomic) * Taterbug * Sodality of Florence * Of Emeralds and Sapphires External links * [http://bulldozerivan.deviantart.com/gallery/48948202 Of Emeralds and Sapphires art gallery] at DeviantArt * [http://bulldozerivan.deviantart.com/gallery/48943144 Sodality 2D concept art collection] at DeviantArt ** Red-Cyan 3D concept art collection ** Green-Magenta 3D concept art collection * [http://bulldozerivan.deviantart.com/gallery/48977975 Battle for Metheel art gallery] at DeviantArt Category: Ciem 1 characters Category: Ciem: Vigilante Centipede characters Category: Abolition characters Category: Dozerfleet supervillains Category: Sodality series characters Category: Sodality: Battle for Metheel characters Category: Incarcerated heroes Category: Team Spaghetti Liberation Category: Team Caged Dove Category:Characters